Keypoints:
- The government has appealed to top corporates to consider to convert their vacant office buildings into temporary Covid care facilities.
- In terms of market capitalisation, Corporate Affairs Secretary Rajesh Verma has written to the heads of top 1,000 corporates.
Over the past few days, the Covid situation has worsened with no beds and no oxygen supply in the country. Amid this worsening situation in India, on Thursday, the government has appealed to top corporates to consider converting their offices into temporary Covid care facilities.
In terms of market capitalisation, Corporate Affairs Secretary Rajesh Verma has written to the heads of top 1,000 corporates. The second Covid surge requires more coordinated and focused approach so as to provide immediate relief to people, he said while appreciating the support of Corporate India in combating Covid.
He also said that the current Covid situation is worrisome since there is rapid increase in active cases and huge number of Covid cases being reported on a daily basis. In the view of ongoing work from home system, companies might have some vacant office buildings at their disposal, he noted.
“You may like to consider converting these vacant office buildings to temporary COVID care facilities with either isolation beds or a combination of isolation and oxygen beds to cater to rapidly increasing COVID caseload in many parts of the country, some of which may lie in your vicinity,” the letter said.
The Corporate Affairs Ministry is implementing the companies law, has also clarified that spending by corporates towards setting COVID care facilities and makeshift hospitals will be termed as CSR activities.
“I would like to appeal to your company to come forward and supplement government efforts in fulfilling the rising hospitalisation needs in view of the second COVID surge,” Verma said.
India, on Thursday, registered over 3.14 lakh new coronavirus cases in a day, the highest-ever single-day count recorded in any country, taking the the total tally of COVID-19 cases in the country to 1,59,30,965.
